Watteco Establishes U.S. Presence to Support Growing Demand for Energy-Saving Intelligent Home Control Technology (2009/05/12)

SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 12, 2009 - Watteco SAS, a French System on Chip (SoC) manufacturer of "no new wire" Power Line Communication (PLC) modems for energy efficiency and intelligent home control applications, today announced the establishment of a U.S. sales, marketing and technical support headquarters here to anchor the company's growing North American business operations and support the launch of several key powerline networking products for the residential energy-management market.

"Watteco's products and technology sit squarely in the sweet spot of U.S. energy-management focus areas for the coming decade," said Eric Berthaud,Watteco SAS Chairman. "Our new marketing and sales headquarters here expands our footprint in this market and puts us in close proximity to customers and partners with whom we are developing solutions to help create a significantly smarter and more efficient energy infrastructure."

The Department of Energy, in its 48-page primer, "The Smart Grid: An Introduction," describes next-generation energy management using the Internet as, "a grid remarkable in its intelligence and impressive in its scope," which will "spur the kind of transformation that the Internet has already brought to the way we live, work, play and learn."

According to the analyst firm ON World, massive rollouts of smart metering and other energy-management systems are underway, worldwide, driven by governments' legislation and billions of dollars in funding for "smart grid" technologies. This funding is being poured into new technologies used to connect in-home electrical devices to the electrical grid, including programmable thermostats, energy displays, smart plugs, and renewable energy sources. These smart-grid-connected devices that make up the Home Area Network empower consumers with real-time control of their energy use, and also help utilities build the smart grid.

Watteco's compact, low-power Watt Pulse Communication (WPC™) modem technology provides an economical powerline solution for enabling this new "smart" energy command-and-control infrastructure. The technology is implemented using existing indoor/outdoor electrical wire within an in-home electrical network, and is designed to significantly reduce power consumption while simplifying residential comfort control and security management. The highly reliable technology interconnects with other popular protocols such as IEEE802.15.4 and can also interoperate with the existing Internet Protocol (IP) network. It has the potential to enable a single, centralized backbone solution for home automation and exchange between a variety of existing and new digital-home devices, modules and the grid -- from simple relay-mode applications to full bidirectional communication and high-end mesh networks for comprehensive intelligent home control.

"The time for manufacturers of home appliances and control systems to take advantage of recent technological advances in wireless and powerline controls is now," said Bill Ablondi, director of home systems research, Parks Associates, about wireless and powerline technologies in announcing the firm's fourth-quarter 2008 industry report. "Consumers are more comfortable with digital technology, industry giants are looking for the ‘Next Big Thing,' and communications protocols with low implementation costs and high reliability are a reality."

Watteco's U.S. operations will be headed by Didier Boivin, marketing vice president, a U.S. semiconductor industry veteran with extensive background in broadband, wireless and consumer market segments. Prior to joining Watteco, Didier was marketing vice president for Centillium Communications. He also has North American management and marketing experience with companies such as DSP Group, where he was president and CEO of the company's VoicePump subsidiary. Other prior experience includes Alcatel Microelectronics, where he was general manager, and Rockwell Semiconductor Systems, where he was a Product Line Manager.

"Didier Boivin has the ideal background for helping Watteco to develop and support our business in the U.S.," said Paul Bertrand, Watteco Founder & Chairman of Watteco Inc. "He has a proven track record in bringing new technology to market and has already helped Watteco in developing key, foundational product positioning. He will be focused on strengthening our already solid customer engagements in the U.S. and our team of sales, marketing and engineering professionals here, while expanding our business and our product portfolio and working with prospective U.S. investment partners."